The Mississippi River is Indispensable to Our Way of Life
For centuries, we’ve used the Mississippi to quench our thirst, nourish our crops, energize our home, and transport our goods. The flowing water sustains robust fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, which provide food, jobs, and economic security to millions of people. But all of this is at risk.
Letting the River Run
Mississippi River Flooding Maps
Explore maps that illustrate the Mississippi River’s reach, our efforts to control it, and the impacts from its flooding on the people who live in its floodplain.
Letting the River Run: Using Nature to Decrease Mississippi River Flooding
As floods throughout the Mississippi River Basin become more destructive and unpredictable, communities are changing tactics to give the water a place to go.
How The Water Shapes Us
A collection of photography from around the Mississippi River Basin that depicts what life is like in disparate parts of this important and vast river system.
Protecting America’s River
Our Goal: A 20 percent reduction of nutrients entering the Mississippi River Basin by 2025
Stretching from the Allegheny Mountains across to the Rockies and south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River Basin spans 1.245 million square miles in 31 states and two Canadian provinces—forming the world’s fourth largest river basin.
One of the most critical challenges in the Mississippi Basin today is nutrient pollution. Each year massive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous from sewage treatment plants, farms and other sources runoff into the river, posing health hazards to people and wildlife, raising water treatment costs, and contributing to the annual Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
The Nature Conservancy is working with farmers, agribusiness, policy makers and others to target science-based solutions in places contributing the highest levels of nutrients.
Mapping the Mississippi
Maps like the two below (and more in Nature Conservancy magazine’s article “Letting the River Run”) help to visually tell the story of flooding along the river and the impact on people who live in the river’s floodplain.
Mississippi River Basin
Healthy Rivers, Delicious Oysters
A new project aims to understand how climate change, upstream water use, and water management decisions affect oysters in the Gulf of Mexico.
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
The dead zone is an area where nutrient pollution flowing into the Gulf of Mexico causes algae blooms that deplete oxygen from the water and make it difficult for marine life to survive.
Natural Solutions for Flooding
Restoring floodplains is a key strategy for communities grappling with annual flooding along the Mississippi River from Iowa to Missouri to Louisiana.
Sowing Conservation Success
Embracing collaboration and innovation is essential for providing food and water sustainably.
